EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 273 



ors in onion growing. In one storehouse at Wayland, Michigan, 2500 

 bushels of onions shrank to 1200 bushels due to the ravages of the para- 

 sitic Botrytis which causes neck rot. The survey of the onion crop was 

 extremely important because up to date no detinite information upon 

 onion disease problems in the State was at hand. The information in- 

 dicates a field for extension work. 



A pecular fruit rot of tomato has been observed at a Grand Rapids 

 greenhouse for a number of years. It manifests itself by a blackening of 

 the fruit, the blackening involving the skin and the tissues. It differs 

 from the ordinary fruit rot in that it usually begins high up on the fruit, 

 not at the calyx end. A yellow bacterial organism has been isolated and 

 its pathogenicity proved. The organism seems to differ from Baoteriuni 

 michiganense, especially in the fact that no wilting of the stem occurs. 

 All evidence points to insects as the carriers of this disease in the green- 

 house. Where insect depredations are uncontrolled the loss may be ser- 

 ious. With good control the spread of the disease is slight and the loss 

 negligible. 



Septoria Itjcopersicl, the leaf-spot organism, caused a practical failure 

 of the tomato crop in some sections of the State. 



Alternaria nigrescens, causing the leaf blight of muskmelon, continued 

 as the serious enemy of muskmelon culture in the State. The crop from 

 muskmelon growing centers was cut practically in two last year. The 

 loss the preceeding year amounted to almost one-fourth of the crop. Mich- 

 igan melons found no favor in the market due to their poor flai or. This 

 lack of flavor was due to the leaf injury induced by this parasite. Severe 

 attacks almost always occur on land where rotation is not practiced. 

 The common history is that melons do well the first year or two in a 

 new locality, and then begin to fail. A better planned cropping system 

 coupled with timely spraying would undoubtedly save this young but 

 promising industry from this annual loss. 



Cucumber diseases continued as serious as formerly. The loss from 

 cucumber scab, caused by Cladosporium cuciimerinwm was found to 

 amount to |1,000,000 in the acreage controlled by one of the large pickl- 

 ing companies. 



Bean diseases caused a loss amounting in the aggregate to |2,000,000 

 last year, wet weather contributing to make the crop only one-half the 

 normal size. The Phyllosticta pliaseoli disease of cow pea was found in 

 several fields last year. This occasioned some alarm since the lesion was 

 thought by the growers of cow peas to be caused by the bean Anthrac- 

 nose. The disease no doubt does some damage but does not cause a 

 great loss to the crop. 



Black Leg of cabbage was found producing 100% loss in certain fields 

 in Branch county. 



Sugar Beet root rot due to Gorticiwn vagiim solani caused a 25% loss 

 in poorly drained soil. Cercospora hetae blighted many fields and in 

 general reduced the crop several tons per acre. 



Red Clover leaf -spot due to Macrosporium sarcinaeforme caused 10% 

 to 15% loss of crop in some fields last year. 

 35 



